


Not A Real Wedding

by DerAndere



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, I mean, JKR Is Bad At Math, Math is hard, but c'mon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:53:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23829406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DerAndere/pseuds/DerAndere
Summary: Not A Real Wedding | A comb was stuck in his little brother's hair. | The Siblings Black, Druella Rosier
Relationships: Alphard Black & Cygnus Black, Alphard Black & Walburga Black, Alphard Black & Walburga Black & Cygnus Black, Alphard Black/Original Male Character(s), Cygnus Black & Walburga Black, Cygnus Black/Druella Rosier Black, Orion Black & Pollux Black, Orion Black/Walburga Black
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Not A Real Wedding

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language, and even if it were, I probably wouldn't know how people in the fifties talked; I don't in German.
> 
> If you're wondering about what JK Rowling's bad-at-maths-ness has to do with this story, well, Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa's father was only thirteen when his eldest daughter was born, according an official family tree. (Or once official. She may have retconned that later, I'm not sure. I know I would've, though. Here it is, if you wanna see for yourself: https://www.hp-lexicon.org/source/other-canon/bft/) 
> 
> That's the whole point of this weird little oneshot: Cygnus is a kid who did something he wasn't ready for. Also, he's in love. Druella isn't much older. Everybody else is a bit of an asshole.
> 
> Have fun!

**March 28th, 1951**

  
Walburga cursed.

Cygnus grimaced. 

Alphard looked up from his notebook. 

A comb was stuck in his little brother's hair. 

"Oh, for Merlin's sake", he mumbled and slid his pen between the pages before closing the book he'd been drawing in. "I told you we should've gotten more Sleekeazy's for that shaggy head of his, Walla." 

Her eyes flashed angrily as she turned her head. 

"Not that you look any better." 

"I mean ... it's not a real wedding, right?" 

He grinned crookedly and pushed wild, black locks out of his face, and she stared, on her face an expression he was quite unable to read, while Cygnus bestowed his darkest look upon the reflection of his brother. 

"And most definitely not mine." 

He winked at her. 

Walburga yanked the comb from Cygnus' hair.   
  


* * *

  
Cygnus Black was not the husband Druella Rosier had dreamed of as a little girl.

The man of her dreams had been taller than him, with a more charming smile and broader shoulders and clear grey eyes instead of ones as black as coal, but she had made her bed, she could almost hear Father say, now she had to lie on it. 

It wasn't like Pollux Black hadn't tried to put the blame for his youngest son's mistake at his oldest's feet. She knew he'd have preferred it had Alphard instead of Cygnus agreed to commit himself to her, for Cygnus was but a boy and Alphard was missing a wife, anyhow. 

She knew, because Alphard had told her. 

_"Was that your plan? Huh? Seduce Cyg so I'd have to marry you?"_

The answer had been No, and it had been honest, since she may have been a Slytherin, she might've been willing to manipulate and fight for what she wanted, but she did not concoct such risky plans, involving so very many things that could've possibly gone wrong. 

And did. 

Could have. 

Did, if there had been a plan, which there hadn't. 

She stared into her reflection's watery-blue eyes and grimaced when her mother pulled a comb through through her thick, dirty blonde hair, not especially gently. 

Cygnus Black was not the brother Druella Rosier had wanted, but he had been good enough for one afternoon, and now he had to be good enough for the rest of their lives.   
  


* * *

  
Cygnus rubbed a sore spot on his head, then yelped, when his sister swatted at his hands. 

"Stop it. You'll just tangle them again, you stupid, stupid boy!" 

So he lowered his arm and his gaze as well, and interlaced his nervous fingers in his lap, and Alphard snorted, amused. 

"You, be quiet!" 

"I didn't say anything!" 

He laughed. 

Walburga dragged the comb through Cygnus' hair, and the boy twitched. 

"No reason to take out your misguided anger on the poor boy. D'you want him to show up to his own celebration with a bald spot? If you'll continue like that, he'll have to." 

He'd never quite understood the relationship between his siblings. 

Maybe because they were so much older than him. 

Perhaps. 

Probably. 

They'd been at Hogwarts long before he'd formed his first memory – before his birth, in fact, if he thought about it now –, and Walburga had only stayed at home for one more summer after her graduation, with brothers and parents, before she had married Orion and moved into Grimmauld Place. 

Alphard, who left Hogwarts just a year later, hadn't even stayed for a day at Black Manor before slinging a bag over his shoulder and grabbing a notebook to explore the world. 

Cygnus had been six years old, and Alphard hadn't shown up again until 1947, and Walburga became more and more unbearable with each year she failed to produce an heir to carry on the Black name. He'd eavesdropped on a few conversations she'd had with their older family members about that particular subject, and he thought he'd become quite unbearable as well, if he'd have to listen to all the things she was told. 

He sighed. 

His brother made a face at his sister. 

His sister pulled her wand.   
  


* * *

  
Orion sat down next to his father-in-law and smoothed out the wrinkles in his trousers, furrowed his brow, when a little boy with dark hair zoomed past them. 

"Whose child is that?" 

"A Lestrange. Ophiuchus and Calliope, I think", Pollux replied evenly. "Rodolphus, if I remember correctly." 

"They'd be wise to better discipline him." 

"Mmh, indeed." 

Orion reached out a hand when the child ran back, past them again, and grabbed the collar of the fine green dress robes the boy wore and would, without a doubt, soil over the course of this day. 

The child struggled against his grip. 

"Let go!" 

He kicked his little legs. 

"Do you know who I am?" 

Orion's expression was dark. 

The boy shook his head. 

"Somebody you ought to treat with respect. And in these halls you will walk, not run, at the side of your mother or father. I don't want to see you wandering around on your own again. Now go." 

He let go off Rodolphus' collar, and the child walked away, throwing nervous glances over his shoulder. 

Pollux raised a brow. 

Orion straightened his back and smoothed out his robes again.   
  


* * *

  
"Show me what you've got, Walla!" 

Alphard laughed. 

He didn't show even the slightest inclanation to reach for his own wand, just held the book loosely in his hand still, while his eyes twinkled with mischief. 

"You're shattering my nerve, Alphard Black", hissed Walburga and breathed in. "Go out of my sight, you aren't of any use here." 

"I'm recording the ugly duckling's transformation!", he retorted and waved around the book, the drawing he'd worked on, wildly. 

"Out!" 

He ducked a curse and chased out of the room.   
  


* * *

  
Irma furrowed her brow and looked over her shoulder, when a door behind her slammed shut with a loud bang, and then her elder son stumbled toward her, laughing like the maniac he sometimes seemed to be. 

"Alphard." 

"Mother!" 

He threw his arm around her. 

"How very nice to see you." 

"What happened? Why are you not with your siblings?" 

She looked up to him, eyebrows drawn together. 

"What did you say to your sister, Alphard?" 

"Nothing!", he exclaimed. "I barely even breathed in her direction, and she flipped her lid! And now she's in there, trying to scalp poor Cygnus with a damn comb." 

"She is very stressed." 

"And how is that my problem? I mean, it's neither my, nor Cyg's fault that her husband can't knock her up, and- Ow! Mum!" 

He withdrew his arm and rubbed the back of his head, pushed forward a pouty bottom lip. 

"What was that for?" 

"Don't talk that way about your sister." 

"What, like it isn't the truth?"   
  


* * *

  
Druella looked up to her father, on whose arm she felt small and insignificant and o so much younger than she was. 

Bastien's hand rested on hers, and he stared at Cygnus unwaveringlyy, whose face had lit up when he'd first caught sight of her, like the enamoured little boy he was, but then he'd look into her father's eye, stopped smiling and averted his gaze. 

Her heart was heavy. 

Her mind stood completely still. 

She didn't want to marry Cygnus Black. 

Her father put her hand into her betrothed's. 

The boy smiled a hopeful little smile. 

Her life was over.   
  


* * *

  
Walburga closed her eyes. 

Orion's hand rested on her back, his thumb rubbing slow circles between her shoulder blades, and he leaned over to her. 

"We can leave, if you want to." 

His lips were so close to her ear, she could feel his hot breath on her skin. 

"So they can whisper about us?" 

He laughed. 

"Like they don't do that already, darling?"

She hadn't married him for love, and he, too, had never been in love with her, but they'd never hated the other, they'd always seen eye to eye. 

They shared the same values. 

It wouldn't be wrong to call them friends. 

And he wasn't a bad friend. 

"Mh, you might be right with that. I'll scream if one more person asks me if I think we'll have some good news soon." 

She turned her head and winked at him in ridiculously over the top manner. 

He pressed his lips into a thin line. 

"Ah, I'd rather you didn't." 

He stood and held out his hand. 

"Let's go. Let them whisper."   
  


* * *

  
"I am not gay."

"Uh-huh." 

"I- We shouldn't be doing this." 

"Mmmh." 

"I have a wife and a son." 

"Shut up, Désiré", Alphard mumbled against his neck. 

Cygnus' brother-in-law moaned quietly.   
  


* * *

  
Cygnus inhaled deeply and squared his shoulders, his face serious and determined. 

Then he walked toward his wife. 

Or ... well, technically speaking, she wasn't his wife. 

A wizard couldn't be married before turning seventeen, and he wouldn't do so for another (almost) three and a half years, but he also knew that there wouldn't be a second celebration like this one and that it would be expected of them to behave like a married couple from now on, so he thought it couldn't be entirely wrong to call her his wife. 

She sat with her sisters and didn't even look up when he stepped up to their table. 

"Would you like to dance?" 

He tried to sound like Alphard, since everybody always said that his brother was charming, if nothing else, and he knew women liked Alphard. 

Even if he, if was being honest, didn't believe that Alphard liked them very much. 

"No." 

"Oh ..." 

He played with the hem of his jacket. 

"Why not?" 

She didn't anwer. 

Delphine, the youngest of the Rosier siblings, a little younger even than him, looked up to him, hopeful, bright green eyes, and smiled at him, like Druella hadn't done since that first night that had let to tonight. 

"I'll dance with you, if you'd like." 

His eyes flickered over Druella once more, but she'd still had her back turned on him. 

"... Okay."   
  


* * *

  
Walburga cursed when another aunt stepped in their way. 

Cygnus grimaced when Delphine stepped on his foot. 

Alphard buttoned up his shirt with a grin. 


End file.
